Product Reviews

ACID was the first music-production software to offer automatic time-stretching and pitch-shifting of audio samples, allowing the user to combine loops of varying tempi and keys instantaneously. It has taken six years for the competition to catch up, but now that Steinberg's Cubase SX3, Cakewalk's Sonar 4 and Ableton's Live 4 all offer similar, as well as plenty more besides, ACID Pro no longer commands the niche it once enjoyed.

In version 4, ACID Pro became more of a general-purpose rather than merely loop-based production tool, with support for software instruments, MIDI editing and surround mixing. Previous versions crucially lacked a groove quantise function, which allows rhythmic templates to be applied to MIDI parts, but ACID Pro 5's new Groove Mapping function remedies this. Grooves are created simply by dropping a loop into the Groove Pool; the software analyses it and generates a template based on the timing of its rhythmic elements. This template can then be edited by moving, adding or deleting markers and, as both Pre-Groove and Post-Groove markers are available, some radical manipulations can be achieved that go way beyond Cubase and Sonar's groove quantise capabilities.

Templates are applied to MIDI tracks simply by painting them onto the timeline, but ACID Pro 5 goes one step further by offering the same treatment for audio tracks. The inherent groove of the audio being quantised is also taken into account, and the whole system makes it incredibly quick to lock a variety of audio and MIDI parts together. You can even use the Quantise to Straight option to lock heavily syncopated or poorly played recordings to a strict metronomic tempo.

Groove Mapping is considerably more powerful and much faster to use than anything offered by the competition, but it isn't as easy to use effectively as we initially hoped. Some combinations of loops simply slot together, but others don't sound quite as coherent. However, there's plenty of depth available, and we suspect that experience will help produce increasingly useful results.

Other new features enhance ACID Pro's already highly streamlined interface. The Media Manager is a sophisticated cataloguing tool that will prove invaluable for anyone with a vast library of samples. Sounds can be sorted and searched for by tempo, key, instrument, genre and plenty more besides. Only the latest loops for ACID sample libraries include

Media Manager can also import video and image files, suggesting that it will be making an appearance in a future version of Vegas, Sony's video-editing application. However, its handling of these files currently falls behind dedicated programs such as iView MediaPro. Media Manager also works with any application that supports drag and drop (including rival audio software such as Cubase), so it's a shame you can't run it on its own rather than as part of ACID Pro.

ACID Pro 5 now joins its competitors in offering Folder Tracks, which allow tracks to be grouped together and packed away in a slimline form on the timeline. It's handy for keeping the screen tidy in larger projects, and particularly valuable since ACID insists on giving each sample or recording its own track.

There are plenty of other welcome new features. Sections of audio can be reversed with a single keystroke, a surprisingly rare feature that suits electronic music production well. There's support for VST plug-ins, which opens up a much wider range of third-party effects than previously offered by ACID's DirectX plug-in support. However, certain VST plug-ins sometimes caused the software to crash. Three VST instrument plug-ins from Native Instruments are included, covering analog, FM and Hammond keyboard emulations. A couple of CD-ROMs of high-quality samples, plus a copy of Sound Forge Audio Studio, are also supplied.

Mixing facilities are more flexible thanks to bus-to-bus routing, and plug-in setting changes can be automated by drawing envelopes onscreen. However, compared to Cubase, Sonar and Live, ACID Pro's mixing facilities remain limited. There's no dedicated channel mixer; instead, each channel's mix settings are accessed via a variety of pop-up windows and drop-down lists. This doesn't limit what's possible, but it isn't very quick to use either. One area that's limited is ACID's VST instrument mixing capabilities. Insert effects such as compression and EQ can be applied, but VST instrument channels can't access aux effects such as reverb, and settings can't be automated except via MIDI controller data - a task that will prove too fiddly for many users.

ACID Pro is once again adorned with features that set it apart from its competitors. The combination of Groove Mapping and the Media Manager make it an obvious choice for those who compose predominantly with sample libraries. Its (mostly) slick interface makes it quick to try out ideas, which in turn encourages an inventive approach to music production - a trait that's matched only by Ableton Live's improvisation-friendly interface. However, as a general-purpose recording tool, its mix facilities let it down. Still, many users won't reach these limitations, while others will easily find workarounds. We wouldn't recommend it over Cubase and Sonar for those who work predominantly with live instruments, but as a loop-based sequencer it's hard to beat.